Optical disc drive and disc determination method thereof

ABSTRACT

An optical disc drive comprises a flash memory, an optical pick-up head, a spindle motor and a control unit. The control unit generates a determination result according to whether the optical disc drive has a disc loaded therein, and stores the determination result into the flash memory when the optical disc drive receives a power. The control unit reads the determination result from the flash memory after receiving the power again, and determines whether to control the optical pick-up head and the spindle motor to execute the disc detection procedure according to the determination result. If the determination result is negative, whether the optical disc drive has a disc loaded therein is determined according to a rotation speed of the spindle motor. If the rotation speed is larger than a threshold value, the control unit determines that no disc is loaded in the optical disc drive.

This application is a divisional application of co-pending U.S.application Ser. No. 13/863,583, filed Apr. 16, 2013, which claims thebenefit of People's Republic of China application Serial No.201210466937.9, filed Nov. 19, 2012. All related applications areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates in general to an electronic device, and moreparticularly to an optical disc drive and a disc determination methodthereof.

2. Description of the Related Art

Along with the booming development in the internet and the multi-mediaindustries, the optical disc has replaced conventional cassette tape inthe storage of audio/video data. In comparison to the cassette tape, theoptical disc has much larger capacity of data storage and can maintainaudio/video data for a longer period with better quality. Therefore, theoptical disc such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and CD-RW has become a mainstreamproduct in data storage.

The conventional optical disc drive is connected to a control host, suchas a computer. After the control host provides a power to the opticaldisc drive, no matter the optical disc drive has an optical disc loadedtherein or not, the optical disc drive must firstly execute a discdetection procedure. After the disc detection procedure is completed,the optical disc drive transmits a signal to the control host toindicate that the initial preparation of the optical disc drive iscompleted. After the disc detection procedure is completed and adetermination is made that the optical disc drive has an optical discloaded therein, the control host controls the optical disc drive toexecute a follow-up action such as reading, writing or playing theoptical disc. In other words, the period from the optical disc drivereceives the power provided by the control host till the disc detectionprocedure is completed can be defined as make-ready time of the opticaldisc drive.

During the disc detection procedure, the optical pick-up head spends along time emitting the laser light and performing focusing operation andthen determines whether the optical disc drive has an optical discloaded therein according to the reflection of the laser light. Inaddition, during the disc detection procedure, whether the optical discdrive has an optical disc loaded therein is further determined accordingto a rotation speed of the spindle motor.

The conventional optical disc drive is started after receiving a powerprovided by a control host. After the optical disc drive is started, theoptical disc drive must execute a disc detection procedure no matterwhether an optical disc is loaded in the optical disc drive. Therefore,the conventional optical disc drive must complete the disc detectionprocedure, that is, driving the optical pick-up head and the spindlemotor to execute the disc detection procedure, even when no optical discis loaded in the optical disc drive. The conventional method makes itdifficult to shorten the make-ready time of the optical disc drive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed to an optical disc drive and a discdetermination method thereof.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a discdetermination method of an optical disc drive. The disc determinationmethod comprises the following steps: A determination result isgenerated according to whether the optical disc drive has a disc loadedtherein when a power is supplied to the optical disc drive. Thedetermination result is stored to the flash memory. The determinationresult is read from the flash memory after the power is received again.Whether to control the optical pick-up head and the spindle motor toexecute the disc detection procedure is determined according to thedetermination result. If the determination result is negative, whether adisc is loaded in the optical disc drive is determined according to arotation speed of the spindle motor. If rotation speed is larger than athreshold value, a determination is made that no disc is loaded in theoptical disc drive.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, an opticaldisc drive is provided. The optical disc drive comprises a flash memory,an optical pick-up head, a spindle motor and a control unit. The controlunit generates a determination result according to whether the opticaldisc drive has a disc loaded therein when a power is supplied to theoptical disc drive, and stores the determination result to the flashmemory. The control unit reads the determination result from the flashmemory after receiving the power again, and determines whether tocontrol the optical pick-up head and the spindle motor to execute a discdetection procedure according to the determination result. If thedetermination result is negative, whether the optical disc drive has adisc loaded therein is determined according to a rotation speed of thespindle motor. If the rotation speed is larger than a threshold value,the control unit determines that no disc is loaded in the optical discdrive.

The above and other aspects of the invention will become betterunderstood with regard to the following detailed description of thepreferred but non-limiting embodiment(s). The following description ismade with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an optical disc drive according to anembodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a disc determination method of an opticaldisc drive according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of an optical disc drive accordingto an embodiment of the invention is shown. The optical disc drive 1comprises a flash memory 11, an optical pick-up head 12, a spindle motor13 and a control unit 14. The control unit 14, such as amicro-controller, is coupled to the flash memory 11, the optical pick-uphead 12 and the spindle motor 13. The control unit 14 accesses data fromthe flash memory 11, and controls the optical pick-up head 12 and thespindle motor 13. The flash memory 11 is a non-volatile memory such asan EEPROM.

Referring to both FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a discdetermination method of an optical disc drive according to an embodimentof the invention. The disc determination method comprises the followingsteps. Firstly, the method begins at step 21, after the control hostprovides a power to the optical disc drive 1, the control unit 14executes a disc detection procedure, and generates a determinationresult S1 according to whether a disc is loaded in the optical discdrive 1. Then, the method proceeds to step 22, the control unit 14stores the determination result S1 to the flash memory 11. Then, themethod proceeds to step 23, after the control host provides the poweragain, the control unit 14 reads the determination result S1 from theflash memory 11. Then, the method proceeds to step 24, the control unit14 determines whether to control the optical pick-up head 12 and thespindle motor 13 to execute a disc detection procedure according to thedetermination result S1.

If the determination result S1 is negative, the method executes step 25.In step 25, the control unit 14 determines whether a disc is loaded inthe optical disc drive 1 according to a rotation speed of the spindlemotor 13. Under the same driving voltage, the rotation speed with a discbeing loaded in the optical disc drive 1 and the rotation speed withouta disc being loaded in the optical disc drive 1 are different. Therotation speed when no disc is loaded in the optical disc drive 1 isfaster than the rotation speed when a disc is loaded in the optical discdrive 1. The difference in rotation speed further assures the accuracyof the determination of step 25. If the rotation speed of the spindlemotor 13 is larger than a threshold value, the method proceeds to step26, the control unit 14 determines that no disc is loaded in the opticaldisc drive 1, and terminates the process of the disc determinationmethod. According to above discussion, if the determination result S1 isnegative and the rotation speed of the spindle motor 13 is larger than athreshold value, then a determination that no disc is loaded in theoptical disc drive 1 can be made. Since it is determined that no disc isloaded in the optical disc drive 1, the process of the discdetermination method can be terminated accordingly.

Conversely, if the rotation speed is not larger than the thresholdvalue, the control unit 14 controls the optical pick-up head 12 and thespindle motor 13 to execute a disc detection procedure. If thedetermination result S1 is affirmative, the method executes step 27. Instep 27, the control unit 14 controls the optical pick-up head 12 andthe spindle motor 13 to execute a disc detection procedure. In the discdetection procedure, the control unit 14 controls the optical pick-uphead 12 to emit a laser light, and determines whether the optical discdrive 1 has an optical disc loaded therein according to the reflectionof the laser light. Furthermore, the control unit 14 controls thespindle motor 13, and determines whether the optical disc drive 1 has anoptical disc loaded therein according to the rotation speed of thespindle motor 13. After step 27 is completed, the process of the discdetermination method is terminated accordingly.

In disc detection procedure, the process of controlling the opticalpick-up head 12 to perform a focusing operation by the control unit 14is time consuming. The make-ready time of the optical disc drive 1 wouldbe too long if the optical disc drive 1 must execute the disc detectionprocedure even when no optical disc is loaded in the optical disc drive1. In the embodiment, the control unit 14 will determine whether to omitone step of the disc detection procedure according to the previouslyrecorded determination result S1 and rotation speed to shorten themake-ready time of the optical disc drive 1. After the two precedingsteps, if the determination result S1 indicates that no disc is loadedin the optical disc drive 1, then the make-ready time of the opticaldisc drive 1 can be shortened by omitting the step of controlling theoptical pick-up head 12 by the control unit 14 to emit a laser light anddetermine whether an optical disc is loaded in the optical disc drive 1according to the reflection of the laser light.

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms ofthe preferred embodiment(s), it is to be understood that the inventionis not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope ofthe appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similararrangements and procedures.

What is claimed is:
 1. An optical disc drive, comprising: a flashmemory; an optical pick-up head; a spindle motor; and a control unit,wherein the control unit receives a power for executing a disc detectionprocedure to determine whether the optical disc drive has a disc loadedtherein, generates a determination result, and stores the determinationresult to the flash memory, wherein the control unit, after receivingthe power again, reads the determination result from the flash memoryand determines whether to control the optical pick-up head and thespindle motor to execute the disc detection procedure according to thedetermination result, wherein the control unit determines whether theoptical disc drive has the disc loaded therein according to a rotationspeed of the spindle motor if the determination result is negative, anddetermines that no disc is loaded in the optical disc drive if therotation speed is larger than a threshold value.
 2. The optical discdrive according to claim 1, wherein if the rotation speed is not largerthan a threshold value, the control unit controls the optical pick-uphead and the spindle motor to execute the disc detection procedure. 3.The optical disc drive according to claim 1, wherein the control unitcontrols the optical pick-up head and the spindle motor to execute thedisc detection procedure if the determination result is affirmative. 4.The optical disc drive according to claim 1, wherein the control unit isa micro-controller.
 5. The optical disc drive according to claim 1,wherein the control unit is coupled to the flash memory, the opticalpick-up head and the spindle motor.